Food addicts find help and hope in 12- step program

By Jessica Belasco | June 13, 2015

The first time Hannah attended a meeting of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, she was told she had to abstain from flour and sugar to overcome her problems with food.

“I said, ‘Do you mean I’m not going to be able to have wedding cake at my daughter’s wedding?’” she recalled.

Sure enough, when her daughter got married years later, Hannah had to decline a slice of cake. But she felt and looked better than she had in years.

“And I had such a beautiful time,” she said.

Hannah had struggled with bulimia in her teens, 20s and 30s. Even after she recovered, she said, “food was an ordeal.” She thought about it too much, and once she started eating, it was hard to stop.

Treating her problem as an addiction has helped Hannah lose and keep off 80 pounds. Now in her early 60s, her “craziness” over food has ended.

“I feel so much better,” she said.

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, often called FA, is based on the 12-step program used by . Members of the group speak to the media on the condition that their anonymity be maintained.

Hannah, who joined FA nearly 12 years ago, continues to attend two meetings a week in San Antonio.

The concept of is controversial, but researchers have found that parts of the brain involved with pleasure and self-control react to certain foods the same way they react to hard drugs. Other studies have discovered that rats display withdrawal symptoms after being deprived of sugar. FA, a nonprofit based in Massachusetts, spun out of Overeaters Anonymous in the late ’90s. There are no fees or weigh-ins. Members receive a food plan that cuts out flour and added sugar, which FA believes are the culprits. Members weigh and measure foods for three meals a day. No snacks or binge foods, which vary by person.

Some members come into the program overweight. Others are underweight or suffer from eating disorders. Many feel they have an obsession with food, diets and eating that interferes with their daily lives. They often eat in secret and eat to blunt their feelings.

Program members — about 6,000 worldwide — admit they are powerless over food and believe a higher power can help them. They attend meetings and say the serenity prayer. They find sponsors to help them through recovery.

“You call your sponsor and talk about what you’re going to eat, how do you go to the grocery store and not go down every aisle, how do you get through college in the dorms without shoving everything in your face,” said Anne, an FA member who serves on the organization’s public information committee.

Hannah said she doesn’t much miss candy and cookies. Paradoxically, she finds the limitations liberating.

“To me, it’s like freedom,” she said. “I don’t have to think about the food.”

Anne acknowledges members are laypeople who don’t make medical claims. For her, the program has worked in a way doctors and diets never did.

Before she joined the program 17 years ago, she wasn’t simply .

“I wanted to die,” she said. “I hated myself. I couldn’t stop.”

Despite the meal plan’s restrictions, she finds it “pretty rich”: Members can eat red meat, chicken, fish, vegetables, fruit, beans and dairy. They eat rice, oatmeal and potatoes. They eat at restaurants and at friends’ homes.

Many members came to the program after trying diet after diet. The emphasis is on long-term recovery, not short-term weight loss, Anne said.

The program isn’t for everyone, Hannah said. Not all people who are overweight or obese are food addicts. “This is for people who are hurting themselves with food,” she said.

FA has two meetings a week in San Antonio. Meetings are held in Austin almost daily. Go to foodaddicts.org or foodaddicts.org/espanol for the Spanish website.